Concierto para Viola y Cuerdas / Concerto for Viola and Strings

(Homage to Óscar Domínguez)


The Concerto for Viola and Strings (Homage to Óscar Domínguez) was written in Madrid during the months of November and December 1985, following the request of the Tenerife-born violist Humberto Orán, with the intention of premiering it in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and later including it in the regular concerts of the "Reina Sofía" Chamber Orchestra, of which the aforementioned soloist was the principal violist at the time.
This predetermined the instrumentation of the work: accompanying the solo viola, a string group with a minimum of eleven instrumentalists (the usual ensemble of the "Reina Sofía" Orchestra), capable of being expanded when the Concerto was performed by ensembles with a larger string section. Hence, the treatment of the orchestral group frequently involves "divisi" into eleven solo parts, alternating with more or less numerous "tutti", depending on the occasion.
In a conversation prior to the composition of the concerto, Humberto Orán suggested the possibility of linking the work in some way to the island of Tenerife, which led us to focus it as a tribute to the ill-fated Óscar Domínguez, a well-known surrealist painter whose work and tragic death (predestined in some of his canvases) lent themselves perfectly to a musical approach marked by contrasting lyrical, scherzando, dramatic, and -why not?- aesthetic elements.
Perhaps it is worth highlighting here my marked predilection for painting. One of my great-grandfathers -the father of the composer Joaquín Turina- my father and one of my brothers are painters. In my most recent work, painting plays an important role: Alaró, for chamber group, is based on the pictorial work of Manuel H. Mompó and was composed for the closing event of the Talleres de Arte Actual of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in 1984. Pentimento was premiered in 1983 by the National Orchestra of Spain under the direction of Jesús López Cobos and later, in October 1985, performed in London by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez. It aims to "set to music" the pictorial phenomenon of the same name. Exequias, a requiem mass for Gregorian chant, mixed choir and orchestra (commissioned by the 24th Religious Music Week of Cuenca), is a tribute to Fernando Zóbel, with whom I developed a friendship during my years of residence in Cuenca.
The Concerto for Viola and Strings consists of four movements. The contrasts to which I previously alluded appear right from the first bars. The references to various "character" aspects are evident and speak for themselves, so I refer you to the listening. Perhaps the "aesthetic" aspect (I can't find a more accurate way to define it) might go unnoticed, and therefore I think it's necessary to emphasize it a bit.

In this work, in contrast to the rest of my previous catalog, there is a broad treatment of the tonal element; but, simultaneously and in the same or similar percentage, the serial element, sometimes in a stricter form, appears at times in alternation with the tonal, and other times in clear juxtaposition. This latter aspect is present in the first and last movements, while the second (scherzo, in the manner of a "perpetuum mobile") includes two absolutely serial trios, separating each of the main sections. The tonal-serial juxtaposition is particularly evident throughout the final movement, in which a melodic line in G minor, played by the viola, is accompanied by an insistent murmur of the strings, constructed serially.
Tonal clarity, therefore, only appears in two instances (I do not count here the quote, in the scherzo, of the first notes of Paganini's Moto perpetuo, as it has no more value than purely jocular and anecdotal): the fusion of the third movement (cadenza) with the fourth, as well as the coda of the latter. In both cases, the tonal treatment is limited to maintaining a single harmony (F-A-C-D in the former and B♭-D-F in the latter) which, through its persistence, creates and resolves its own tension.

The Concerto for Viola and Strings (Homage to Óscar Domínguez) was premiered at the Guimer/aacute; Theater in Santa Cruz de Tenerife by Humberto Orán, accompanied by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra conducted by Armando Alfonso, on March 6, 1986.